Designing for differently-abled customers

by Tessa Clark

At Alistair Fleming Design, one of the great pleasures of our job is that each new project is unique to the client we're making for. All of our customers have specific needs for the furniture we make for them, as each kitchen will be used in its own unique way. Some of the customer needs are more familiar to us, and some are less so - but we always design with the individuals in mind, so see designing for the differently abled as a natural part of our offering.

Familiar requirements include tailoring the height of the worksurface to suit the exact height of the person preparing the food, so backs are not taxed whilst working and everything is within reach. Similarly, we place the height of ‘eye-level’ ovens at our client’s actual eye-level, and place lighting in specific areas; intensity, colour spectrum and reflective surfaces are all considered to suit the eyesight of the cook. We can recommend handles for arthritic or large hands, and adjust work surfaces for sound, as dissonant sounds which can affect the pleasure of being in your own space.

We have worked on projects with requiring new approaches recently, including one for a fabulous client with specific design needs for depth perception. We all want to open a drawer or door in our kitchen without thinking about the process, however if you have depth perception needs this can be very challenging. We designed the handles for their hands and eyes to ensure the kitchen remains a calm and pain-free space.

Another huge privilege has been designing and making furniture for a lovely customer who was a wheelchair-user. With amazing support and discussion with them and the use of a wheelchair in the showroom to try and better understand some of the requirements, we developed a design and made furniture to make the kitchen an inclusive space for all the family, especially the drinks cabinet so making a round of gin and tonics was available to everyone.

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At Alistair Fleming Design each project we do is deeply considered and unique to the client, while still retaining a high level of craftsmanship, quality and attention to detail. The balance between flexibility of design and consistency of execution is something we are all very proud of, it makes us as unique as our wonderful customers.

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